East coast, Nevada

He laughed. It had been months since he'd felt this happy. He had known that the day would come when he'd finally be able to put things in the past but it had felt like an eternity to get to that place. So dumb. He still couldn't believe he'd gotten so upset. She hadn't meant what she'd said anyway so why did he have to make her feel so badly for it? It had been mostly his fault anyway. When you provoke a person into saying something, can they really be blamed for it? He'd been asking for it. And, boy, did he get it. It was the truth. They'd both known it the minute she'd let the words slip from her mouth. And then she was gone. For better or worse, they had stopped calling one another and eventually allowed themselves to drift apart. He might not even recognize her if she passed him on the street anymore. (He'd recognize her. How could he not?) And for what? A moment of stupid passion; aggression unmeant to hurt or linger permanently, like a scar on the beautiful face of their friendship. A friendship that was supposed to be so much more than just a friendship. And now... look where they were. Her - somewhere on the East coast and he - stuck in Nevada with no prospects of leaving and no ambition to follow the woman he secretly wished was still in his life. But she wasn't. Not today at least. And today was all he could live in. At least he could laugh again. He prayed she could too.